Reincarnation: the 35 steps of soul evolution

35 Steps

According to many spiritual teachers, all human beings are, in reality, spiritual beings on a human journey. We reincarnate as human beings in order to evolve as souls.

Our ultimate aim is to become fully conscious and capable as unique individual expressions of All That Is. It is a long journey, but that’s okay because the soul is eternal.

Soul Evolution

The soul’s journey is really a process of evolving. This means growing in consciousness, steadily progressing through different levels or stages of consciousness. How do we grow in consciousness? Through taking on challenging experiences in physical form. These cause us to make important, “soul-searching” choices and call upon us to discover our inner resources. But why in physical form? Why would a perfectly happy spiritual being decide to inhabit the physical realm with all of its limitations and difficulties? It is precisely so that we can experience the state of what feels like total separation from others and from the rest of reality. Only by going into this physically separated human form can we know ourselves as beings in our own right, and not just as … well … undifferentiated blobs of energy. Being physical throws our experiences and choices into extremely sharp relief in a way that is not possible otherwise. This is how we learn who we are and how to become all that we are. In other words:

Choice and the ramifications of choice provide the essential lessons of life. In a very real sense, you choose to be here in order to make choices.

Messages from Michael

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The 35 Steps

We are here to know ourselves and be all we can be, step by step. And according to the teachings of the entity known as Michael, there are 35 steps to the reincarnational process. The body and personality you have now are merely the vehicles you have chosen for this latest step in your journey.

But why 35 steps? Why not 36 steps? Or 10? Or 100?

It is simply because, according to Michael, we go through five major stages of evolution through reincarnation. And, within each stage there are seven increments or levels to be completed. (Yes, it is rather like a computer game.) 5 x 7 = 35. 35 steps Each single step requires a whole lifetime to complete. In fact, each step usually requires more than one lifetime. Typically, the entire journey of 35 steps takes well over a hundred lifetimes. So let’s look at the journey in more detail. We’ll start with the five major stages of soul evolution through reincarnation.

The Five Stages

The Michael teachings describe a sequence of five “cycles” or stages of soul evolution. They are named after the stages of human development:

Each of these five corresponds to a specific level of development in capability and self-awareness within the individual soul. As the soul goes through each stage, the focus changes, more experience is gained, and consciousness expands. Michael Newton Incidentally, the same pattern of soul evolution has been identified by the hypnotherapist Michael Newton (right). His groundbreaking research was published in the best-selling book Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives (Llewellyn, 1994). The books by Newton and his students draw upon thousands of transcripts of people who, under hypnotic regression, have re-experienced being between lives. From the higher perspective of their soul they are able to explain what happens after death and before birth. This includes information about the levels of consciousness through which reincarnating souls evolve. What Newton and others have discovered is that souls between lives exist in light-form, and that each soul emanates a particular colour of the spectrum which indicates its current level of consciousness. The spectrum begins at white (all colours) but then goes through red, yellow, green, blue, to deep purple and violet. From low frequency to high frequency. The least evolved souls — the “newbies” — have a pinkish hue. The oldest souls — those nearing the end of the whole reincarnational cycle — have a blueish hue. Although the spectrum is a continuum, Dr. Newton has found that it can be divided into five distinct stages or levels of evolvement, from Level I to Level V. These can be mapped onto the five stages given in the Michael teachings, from Infant soul to Old soul.

So, for example, souls in the middle (or third) stage of reincarnation are referred to as “Young souls” in the Michael teachings and they are at what Newton would call “Level III”. They will have a yellowish or golden hue. (As an aside, both Newton and the Michael entity also identify higher levels of soul evolution which do not involve reincarnation.) The stages of reincarnation (or soul age) can also be likened to the stages of metamorphosis we see in nature, such as egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly. In reincarnation, though, what changes is not the physical form but the mode of consciousness, especially the form of self-awareness and — as a result — the way of relating to others.

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Soul age characteristics

Soul age affects how an individual lives, thinks, acts, and comes across to others. Stage 1 — Infant Souls

Infant souls focus on immediate survival needs. They flourish in simple environments close to nature, such as remote tribes or rural, pastoral settings.

In the context of modern society, however, they can come across as uncivilised simpletons or yokels, and may even be deemed to be psychopathic or have some sort of developmental disorder.

Psychologically, infant souls are naive, impulsive and “pre-conventional”, acting on impulse or habit with little or no thought for consequences.

Because they lack both social understanding and self-inhibition, they are capable of committing antisocial or immoral acts without any sense of wrongdoing. As such, they do not fit well within modern society and may end up in prison or in psychiatric units.

While they may lack the moral principles, social graces and cultural understanding of older souls, Infant souls are in a sense completely innocent, being without pretense or agenda.

Stage 2 — Baby Souls

In contrast to Infant souls, Baby souls think a great deal about the rights and wrongs of their actions. Their lives are about safety, security, structure and order — rigidly so. They like to live in communities that are highly principled and “civilized” (think of the Amish).

Baby souls come across to older souls as rather “square” – strictly conventional and conformist. Both their beliefs and their actions are largely rule-bound, so they are often ultra-conservative, traditionalist, orthodox, upright, moralistic, religiously devout, and mindful of law and order.

That said, they will occasionally give in to temptation, or temper tantrum, and break the rules themselves — but then might find themselves tortured with guilt and shame.

They are acutely aware of the rights and wrongs of people’s actions, including their own, though they have little insight into the motives behind them. Bad behaviour is sinful, and that’s that.

Stage 3 — Young Souls

Young souls tend to be extravert, outward-bound, worldly, frenetically energetic, brash, competitive, political, ambitious and individualistic. Life at this stage is about thinking for oneself and asserting oneself as an individual.

Young souls are more ego-driven than others, keen to make their mark in the world. They are generally attracted to some form of worldly success — fame, fortune, power, glory. In fact, they are more fearful of death than souls at other stages, and those who aren’t sure about life after death may be anxious to make a big impact on the world stage, to create some kind of symbolic immortality for themselves.

Young souls cling to their own opinions, with a certainty that their own perspective is the right perspective, and their way ahead is by far the best way. They are very aware of their own agenda but do not really question it.

Stage 4 Mature souls Mature - woman

Mature souls tend to be more reflective than younger souls, with a growing understanding of self, growing empathy for others, and a desire for authenticity in both. Life is less about proving oneself, and more about exploring “right relationship”.

Mature soul consciousness is no longer egocentric, in the sense of being limited to one’s own perspective and agenda, but is capable of accommodating multiple perspectives and different agendas. In fact, there is now a tension between “what I want” and “appreciating what you want,” or between the personal and the interpersonal.

This makes life much more complicated — sometimes overwhelmingly so. On the one hand, mature souls reject narrow-minded values. Yet on the other hand, they are able to empathise with whoever holds those same values. Fixed opinions are replaced by a sense of ever-shifting perspectives — “It all depends on how you look at it”.

This disappearance of solid ground can be hugely stressful, but it kicks off a search for deeper meaning and self-understanding, whether through art, psychology, philosophy or spirituality.

Mature souls tend to question everything, including their own motives, and are prone to do a lot of soul-searching (literally).

Stage 5 — Old Souls mooji 140

Old souls tend to exude some degree of depth, gravitas or wisdom that is quite obvious. In children, it can be most striking (think: old head on young shoulders) For having moved beyond the stresses and conflicts of the Mature soul, Old souls have a growing sense of inner peace and freedom — the freedom to enjoy being very much in the world, but not of it.

Compared to younger souls they are relatively calm, measured, untroubled and stable, unattached to social structures and cultural expectations, being sure of their own existence and inner strengths and their compassion for others.

On the other hand, finding themselves in a world that is so conflicted, chaotic, frantic, and superficial can be utterly depressing.

For Old souls, the aim of life is to find true self-expression and fulfillment. As such, they tend to go their own unique way in life, letting go and letting be, in a detached way that may seem very weird and eccentric to younger souls.

Late-stage old souls find themselves consciously participating in the evolution of all-that-is, and often focus on teaching spiritual wisdom with great compassion.

Note: These descriptions emphasise the differences between stages. In reality, though, there is a gradual blend from one stage to the next. A person at the start of the Mature stage, for example, will act mostly like a Young soul but with elements of Mature soul nature beginning to emerge.

The lessons of each stage

Here are the five stages of soul evolution through human reincarnation, together with the typical learning experiences associated with each stage:

soul age focus 2 450

So we begin reincarnating as Infant souls, complete novices at physical existence. At this first stage we are largely in a state of incompetence and terror, frankly. But through experiences and choices we learn and grow. We steadily progress from being Infant souls to Baby souls to Young souls to Mature souls. Finally, we enter the fifth stage as accomplished Old souls, the experts of human existence.

As infant souls we learned about choices having to do with survival, as baby souls choices having to do with moral codes and ethics, as young souls choices having to do with mastery of achievement, as mature souls choices having to do with relationships, and as old souls choices having to do with the nature of oneness with the Tao. An infant soul would therefore not understand the choices of an old soul although an older soul would likely have more understanding of the nature of younger soul choice having had them.

Michael, via Victoria Marina

To look at each stage in more detail see:

Stage 1. The Infant Soul

Stage 2. The Baby Soul

Stage 3. The Young Soul

Stage 4. The Mature Soul

Stage 5. The Old Soul

Soul levels in the human population

The six or seven billion people on the planet span the whole range of stages, but the average is said to be somewhere just past the mid-point of stage 3 (see chart below). In other words, this world is currently dominated by Young souls whose primary focus is competitive self-advancement.

The seven steps within each stage

Within each stage there are seven discrete steps to go through. In the Michael teachings, they are called “levels”, so in each stage we proceed from 1st level to 7th level. Calling these “levels” can be a bit confusing (since Newton refers to the five major stages as “levels”), so I sometimes prefer to call them “steps”. So each stage of reincarnation has seven distinct learning steps. For example, we begin the whole journey at step 1 as Infant souls, learn that lesson, then undertake step 2 as Infant souls, and so on. On completing the 7th step of the Infant stage, we then begin the 1st step of the Baby stage.

35 steps

The early steps in any stage are about experiencing life at this new stage of evolution, learning the essential lessons through appropriate experiences. The later steps are about expressing those lessons, demonstrating this level of consciousness in action. For example, in the Young soul stage, the first three steps — from 1st level Young soul to 3rd level Young soul — are about discovering the meaning of free will and self-determination; the last three steps — 5th level Young soul to 7th level Young soul — are about demonstrating the meaning of free will and self-determination in action. (The middle step — 4th level Young soul — is about consolidating the lessons learned.) The first step or level of any stage is like putting a toe in the water; the final step is like teaching others how to swim:

1st Level Initiation into the new stage. “Toe in the water.” First glimpses of the new consciousness. We come to recognise that there is a whole new way of being ahead of us, and we respond to the call, even though as yet it is beyond our comprehension.
2nd Level Building foundations. Wading in and out. Comparing and contrasting the old and new consciousness. We come to understand what is essential and different about this higher level, though it still remains ‘ahead’ of us, not quite within us.
3rd Level Rising to the challenge. Taking the plunge. We determinedly commit ourselves to actively embrace and explore the new consciousness.
4th Level Integration. Relaxing into it, “enjoying the water.” We now identify ourselves with this way of understanding self, life and others – this is our truth. We fully incorporate and consolidate the new consciousness into our own being.
5th Level Expression. Splashing about – “Look at me!” We openly share and communicate our new, true sense of self and of life’s meaning. We feel drawn to broadcast our truth, to “go public” with it.
6th Level Demonstration. Giving value and benefit to others. “Being a life guard.” Our new consciousness is put to the test. We also burn off any outstanding karma incurred in the earlier steps of this stage.
7th Level Mastery. Peak performance. We have complete understanding and control of our awareness at this level. We know exactly what we are doing. We may feel like a role model. Hmm… What’s next?

This sequence of seven steps is repeated through each stage, making 35 steps in all from the beginning of reincarnation to the end. In case you’re wondering, I’m at the 5th level of the Mature soul stage. My current life’s lesson is about outwardly expressing my Mature soul consciousness.

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Many lives

So, we start our evolutionary journey at level 1 of stage I (as “1st Level Infant souls”) and end it at level 7 of stage 5 (as “7th Level Old souls”). There are 35 steps in all. And each single step requires at least one lifetime to complete. A single step can be done in one lifetime but often that’s too big a stretch, so an initial life may undertaken as a taster, followed by one or two more which really go for it. Sometimes a life is interrupted, and the soul will just have to start over in the next life. Also, some lives are undertaken for reasons other than the specific intent to develop. For example, one lifetime might be undertaken primarily to assist another soul in their development. And some lives are taken on primarily for the death experience, for karmic reasons. These can be very short, of the order of days, weeks or months. Taking into account all the gaps spent in the non-physical state between lives, a single step is typically accomplished in about 100-300 years of Earth time. The whole journey of 35 steps usually takes well over 100 lifetimes. Hence, the whole journey is likely to take of the order of 7,000-8,000 years, but possibly a lot more if the population is low and opportunities to incarnate are few.

Questions and Answers

Coming back again and again sounds dreadful. Why don’t we just give up and be done with it? Can’t I just decide that this is my last time?

You cannot skip any of the steps, nor would you want to (from the soul’s perspective). You wouldn’t rent a movie but then skip to the final credits just to avoid the whole process of sitting through the movie. In fact, it’s more like a computer game. You are playing the game because you want to, and at some level you actually love it. And you know perfectly well that you need to master one level before you can move on to the next level. That’s what the game is all about.

Who says?

There’s no tyrannical deity controlling the game, forcing you to keep at it, deciding who gets to “graduate” and who doesn’t. It’s just the natural dynamic of life and the evolution of consciousness. A tadpole cannot suddenly transform into a full-grown frog. A baby human cannot suddenly take on a professional career or family responsibilities. There’s a natural, inevitable sequence to go through. And we’ve all signed up for it.

But why? What’s it all about?

Well, at the level of spirit or essence, all is one, all is love, all is joy. This is all very nice, but consciousness longs to experience more and more of what there is to experience, the utter richness and fullness of life.

How does it do that?

By fragmenting into zillions of conscious entities, each of whom has its own experiences and perspective, and each of whom can make its own choices about what to experience. Any soul can choose to continue being submerged in all-that-is, albeit with little sense of self. Alternatively, any soul can choose to undergo the experience of life in a separate physical form, interacting with other souls in their own physical forms. This is the ultimate way to experience oneself as a self.

And that’s why we are here?

We have all made this choice: to use the human form as a vehicle to help us become more conscious of ourselves as the amazing beings we are. The aim is to experience every possible experience that enables us to emerge more and more consciously and fearlessly as ourselves. We begin as helpless infants for whom the experience of separate existence is quite terrifying. But we end as autonomous, self-realised beings for whom human existence is the most amazing way of being, feeling joyful and free and sharing love with the whole of life.

More frequently asked questions

More on Soul Evolution

Books

The Michael Handbook  by José Stevens and Simon Warwick-Smith [Amazon]

Sojourn: Karma, Reincarnation, and the Evolution of the Soul  by Gina Lake [Amazon]

Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives  by Michael Newton [Amazon]

See also:

PersonalitySpirituality.net

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1,232 thoughts on “Reincarnation: the 35 steps of soul evolution”

  1. Sara – I don’t know if I’m old or young . . . this physical life I have outlived my need and fulfilled my contract with my guide, parents, and friends. i’m 79 in my 11yr of SLL/CLL.
    I’m spiritually blind and as a result must go to readers to find out how i’m doing and talk with my Guide Lord Monténe and transitioned rels and friends.

    I have read all the books i mentioned in my previous comment – plus a lot by Guy Needler. All are spiritualists but not religious. The Masters gave us many lessons about Unconditional Love – but nothing negative. I have had hundreds of earth lives (a slow learner and screwed up several of my contracts), 10’s maybe 100’s lives on other planets – dimensions. I still have a ways to go but will focus on teaching what i’ve learned.

    I come to this URL to read the likes of Barry, Ken Kaplan, and Ama Nazra to raise my energy and maybe learn new information to grow my knowledge of Unconditional Love.

    When a low vibration energy [deleted] comes on the site, it impacts everyone’s energy. There are other sites who thrive on low energy augments and controversy.

    The One Consciousness is well aware of the imbalance and negative forces on earth and have several million souls ringing earth with “light” to try and re-balance what we have done to our selves over several millenniums.

    I have Unconditional Love for “Everyone and All That Is” but I don’t have to like Everything.

    http://Reusser.US/LBL

    Reply
    • I feel like an old soul ,I don’t wanna attach to this material life and I feel like trapped

    • Sam, a Young or even mature soul is not drawn to the type of material or energy you associate yourself with. So like most of us imo you are very late stage mature transitioning to early stage old.

      However, I would encourage you to give up labels, and do your best to use your spiritual tools and focus on expanding and deepening your connection to your soul and source energy striving as much as possible for alignment.

      For one like you, it is the only game in town and everything flows from it. Be here now in your essence. Let go of the conceptions of the mind.. They point us to the experience and have some usefulness , but are not the experience itself

      And whatever you did in past lives does not matter. The lessons and experiences you needed were encapsulated into this one

  2. Thank you for this! I have been adherent to the concept of reincarnation for some time now but the last few days and especially when I first read you post “10 things everyone should know about reincarnation” I have a better understanding of all of this, helping me answer a lot of questions as well as find peace in my life and with what I’m here to do. Really, thank you!

    Reply
  3. These things you speak of in regard to Human politics and religion are divisive in this world, perhaps not relevant in the next. All the near-death accounts I’ve read say that Man-made religions and “who did what to who” are not even a consideration in the next world. Man-made things are things of the ego, and inasmuch as one clings to such concepts and beliefs, all it can do is prevent one from attaining enlightenment, which is among other things, the realization that what is created by Man is only temporal and more often than not is false. In the end, we are all “God” playing a role in the Cosmic drama, we are all both good and evil, but that is relative to what role we are cast into. The drama requires all sorts of characters in order to be convincing, and keep us all engaged to the point of absolute joy or terror. And just when you think it all may go terribly wrong, and you are in the utmost peril, you die and realize it was all illusion, and there you are on the other side saying “Boo!”

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  4. As I said previously Sarah, if the afterlife/next dimensions, etc., are filled with beings such at this, with their critical judgemental ways, that would not be Heaven, that would be Hell itself. My Father all over again! LOL!

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  5. Good to hear from you Barry. I was concerned for you. Thought health issues might have played a part. So it’s interesting,What shadow aspect of ourselves did this guy represent?

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    • What occurs to me is the mature soul dilemma – the complexities of perspectives within perspectives.

      Mature souls take it for granted that all others will have their own perspectives, to which they are entitled, even if they are demonstrably “wrong”. In a discussion between mature souls with different views, each will respect the other’s perspective – and also accept that their own view is also “just a perspective” – but they will debate their differences respectfully and rationally to see if they can achieve a consensus.

      Younger souls never do that; they simply assert their own rightness: “Hey, my view is correct, which means you’re stupid.” They keep at it until either you accept it or you back down, no longer able to take the insults.

      Mature souls tend to find such attacks shocking and incomprehensible; “I may not agree with you but I would never treat you the way you are treating me.”

      While mature souls accept that others have their own beliefs and opinions, which puts all perspectives on a level playing field, I guess the shadow is the mature soul’s failure to see that this in itself is “just another perspective” (a meta-perspective?).

  6. Dear Alex. When someone is deeply disturbed, it is best not to engage with them because any attempt at rational thought feeds their illness and craving for attention. The more he is ignored, the more chance he will tire of hearing his own voice. Since he is so out of resonance with the core energy of the site, I am not sure why Barry has not blocked his access after saying he will do so.

    However, from a more metaphysical, Law of Attraction perspective, an interesting question is why did the deep shadow within all of us he represents appear, and why now? What is the mirror here to inspect?

    I had something very similar happen recently when a Trump supporter (again) wildly attacked me inappropriately on Facebook for a talk on dreams I gave at a library.

    My intuition and that of a friend who is a reader correctly saw, in that instance, that the person was a representation of unfinished core patterns of self sabotage and issues of self worth.

    Seems to be in the air as vibrations all around are heightened. There have had others who are rather dysfunctional, fundamentalists especially. This is a more pernicious strain.

    He could just be a troll as well who gets off on all of this or both. When one is sick, one is sick. Ignore him all.

    I just delete all his posts immediately. What’s the point?

    Reply
  7. Barry – Ultimately (we have eternity) we will become Unconditional Love as we merge with other consciousnesses and eventually become part of the One Consciousness.

    It is all based on the thousands of human and other dimension incarnations we have and the experiences we have. The lessons of which is forgiveness and love. The core is the law of reciprocity or treat everyone and everything else as you want to be treated.

    the more mature we become the more we should periodically evaluate ourselves to “are we becoming Unconditional Love?” if we slipped or had moments of anger, can we forgive ourselves and any other and what steps if any to continue learning and evolve.

    Reply
  8. Barry and Sam,thanks for your replies. In that”slipping up,” does the Universe then comes forth in form to show us the shadow we have not dealt with or is still present within? That’s one way I have looked at this recent intrusion. There have been other in the past but not as virulent. This I take as matching the intensity of the escalation of energy of the times, both of light and shadow.

    Reply
  9. Kenneth – our most recent intrusion is a very young and angry soul. I responded one time and simply deleted when his name popped up. he is quite twisted and when he gets Home he will need major restoration and lots of love before he will be able to review and assess this incarnation of himself.

    while we are incarnated, unless we have special skills we must be as honest with ourselves as we can, maybe even study, and work out our issues as best we can.
    When we arrive Home, and all our knowledge is returned, a lot will be instantly clearer. Plus we will have guides and the Oversoul to help us decide if it’s a forgive and move on or if we should re-experience under different circumstances.

    The real evolvement is while incarnated for the Soul and Chakra’s to recognize if we should have reacted or done differently. The Soul is part of the One as the One is part of the Soul.

    Look inside and ask the Soul and One. May take awhile, but the solution will come one way or another.

    Reply
  10. Here’s a nice quote…

    “We can only escape from the world by outgrowing the world. Death may take man out of the world but only wisdom can take the world out of the man. As long as the human being is obsessed by worldliness, he will suffer from the Karmic consequences of false allegiances. When however, worldliness is transmuted into Spiritual Integrity he is free, even though he still dwells physically among worldly things.”
    — Manly P. Hall

    Reply
    • Transcendental, which means he was born as an Old soul but then at some point in adult life he surrendered his personal consciousness to a manifestation of higher consciousness; then he had the ability to see ‘above’ human limitations and societal pressures, though it doesn’t necessarily mean that he always acted from that higher perspective in every situation (the same is true of Jesus, Gandhi, Socrates, Paramahansa Yogananda, etc).

  11. Dear Barry,

    I am really glad to see you are back. I have discovered Michael’s teachings through your blog a few years ago, 2016, I think. It has been on my bookmarks since. I hope you are feeling well. I want to thank you for all your hard work, building such an extensive source of information for those who are seeking it.
    All the best!!!

    Reply
  12. I always knew I am an ancient soul. Very OLD. I have the mind of an ancient god. I have so much in my mind, that I don’t want to identify with any sort of labels. I am also a Lightworker..

    Reply
    • There were 5 labels in that short paragraph. Who and what you are has no labels. It is neither ancient, old, nor young. It is not a god. It has no mind, and it expresses itself as everything. .And it does not self identify as “this” or “that”. But because you are drawn to this site that which you are seeks to unbind itself. It is a universal process with no preferences. It is profoundly simple in its truth, yet often excruciatingly difficult.in its process. And it refrains often from self declaration.

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